Here are a few photos of a young Chinese king cobra, Ophiophagus hannah, that i picked up from Houten in October last year. Since its last slough around a month ago, it has really starting to take on its adult colouration, and i am looking forward to seeing how it changes again after its next slough.

Shortly after arrival in October 2010, with very dark black bands.



The little king cobra in January, still with juvenile colours, but the dark bands have started to lighten a little



And after its most recent slough at the end of February



Lots of progress has also been made with regards to feeding. I started off by feeding this king cobra on defrosted corn snakes that had been stuffed with pink mice, and it fed on these without any problems. After several months of feeding this way, i began stitching 2.5cm long pieces of corn snake onto the nose of the rodents, similar to how i began feeding my large WC Malaysian king cobra in 2009, and again the chinese king fed on these without difficulties. Lately, i have been offering rodents that are only scented with snakes blood, or have just a small piece of corn snake skin placed on the head, and still the little king feeds. The next stop will attempting to feed on unscented rodents, but this may still take some time.

Cheers,

Tom

That is really nice, Tom. I would like to trade for some of those, if someone out there has any availabe for trade.

You got him eating the same way I have done all my Kings over the years. Some are easier than others, but they all seem to switch to rodents in time.

Hi Tom,
this is really a nice development in coloration.
To make the Kings eating rodents sometimes it is a long way, but it is worth it.